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CE: The Magazine is an online magazine covering technology, media, music, art, and culture. Current Editorials was founded in 2011 by Micah Singleton. CE: The Magazine was established in 2013 in partnership with Eric Leamen.

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Tag Archives: Google

This week, Eric and Micah ponder what could be inside the mysterious barge Google is building in the San Francisco Bay. We also discuss Android 4.4 KitKat and the Nexus 5, Apple’s Q4 earnings, Fantastical 2, and paying for app updates.

Notions is a weekly column that delves into what did, what should, what could, or what needs to happen in the world of technology and pop culture.

In 1973, Seiko released the first watch with a six-digit LCD, the 06LC (pictured above), jump-starting the era of digital watches. The first digital electronic watch was the Hamilton Pulsar P1, developed in 1972, but it was too expensive at $2,100, and much too power-hungry to be anything more than a harbinger. The 1980s were the golden years for digital watches, and watchmakers attempts to differentiate themselves from one another resulted in watches with seemingly outlandish features. Casio popularized the calculator watch in 1980 with the C-80; Seiko created a digital watch with a blue and gray LCD that came with an external TV tuner in 1982; the same year, a Casio digital watch came with a thermometer; in 1987 Citizen built a watch that reacted to your voice. While not experiencing the same success as in previous decades, the digital watch market finds itself in a reasonable position, still quite popular in the lower-end watch market.

This is how it goes: I propose that a cute girl of interest (her name is Rebecca) accompany me to dinner and drinks… and mention my one wearable, Bluetooth-enabled caveat. As it turns out, she’s game for the experiment, curious about Google Glass and accepts my invite. Cue nerd panic.

The brilliant (and dear friend of the site) Taylor Hatmaker takes us through what may be Google Glass’ biggest point at issue as it attempts to go mainstream — focused human interaction between two people in search of a deeper connection, or as it is more commonly known, a date.

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As the world watched footage of the body of Christopher Stevens being dragged through the streets, YouTube reached a similar decision. Despite allegations that the riots had been caused by an Arabic-language version of the video posted on the site, it turned out that an English version of Innocence of the Muslims had been in circulation since July. YouTube had determined that the clip didn’t violate its terms of service, which by then were similar to Facebook’s: “Sometimes there is a fine line between what is and what is not considered hate speech.

Jeffrey Rosen of The New Republic takes a look at Silicon Valley’s biggest companies and the battle over the future of the first amendment online.

Google just announced their Q4 2012 earnings, posting a healthy $14.42 billion in revenue, up 36% from the same quarter last year. Motorola Mobility revenues totaled $1.51 billion for the quarter, contributing to a total $2.89 billion in revenue for Google, a slight increase from last year’s $2.71 billion Q4 revenue. As expected, the bulk of Google’s revenue came from search and advertising, which brought in $12.91 billion or 89% of consolidated revenues. International revenues also made up 54% of Google’s earnings, bringing in $6.9 billion.

2012 has been a monumental year in technology. This year we’ve watched Facebook truly realize the complete “American Dream,” as it went through with an IPO that valued the social network at $90 billion in May, lost 47 percent of its value in 94 days, and subsequently began a slow ascent back to respectability. The Internet rallied its voice and defeated major legislation across the globe, including SOPA and PIPA that attempted to regulate the Internet. Major gadgets were released, including the Nexus 7, iPad mini, Microsoft Surface and iPhone 5. Copyright and patent laws around the world were put to the test as Apple and Android OEMs embarked on a game of ‘who can file lawsuits against each other in the most countries,’ with Samsung arising as the first victim of the lawsuits to the tune of $1 billion, which of course is being appealed.

All in all, it was a very eventful year in tech. Let’s take a look back at some of the highlights.

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Join Current Editorials as we take a look back at the top trends, gadgets, and companies of 2012 in our year-end series “2012 in Review.”

Two new versions of Android, new flagship phones, new tablets—2012 was good to Android fans. While the rest of the mobile world didn’t exactly stand still, few ecosystems were the subject of as much news coverage and occasional drama as Android was. Let’s take a look back at what happened this year, and what 2012 meant for the future of Google’s mobile operating system.

2012 was a big year for Android smartphones. Anyway you slice it, the market for Google-powered phones grew by leaps and bounds, putting even more space between it and Apple’s iPhone. Microsoft’s Mango point release to Windows Phone failed to put a dent in Google’s march forward, and the once menacing Redmond software company found itself (again) rebooting its mobile operating system. RIM was… well, let’s not talk about RIM. Thorsten Heins has his work cut out for him.